Majority of benchmarks in the Asian region displayed sanguine moves in Friday trades as sentiments remained buoyant on the back of encouraging developments from the European region which abated concerns over the sovereign debt trouble to some extent. Investors added positions with conviction on tentative improvement in risk appetite after the successful bond auctions in Italy and Spain as well as on the ECB’s decision to keep benchmark rates at 1%. ECB’s recent liquidity programs have played vital role in helping stabilize European debt markets. Sentiments also got support from the overnight US markets which settled higher despite downbeat US economic reports which showed unemployment claims were more than forecast while December retail sales were weaker than expectations.
However, the stocks in China declined for the third straight session and plunged over one and half a percent after worries over the nations’ slowing economy grew while investors also remained concerned over earnings growth which will be dented by government’s curbs on property purchases. Shares in Japan traded with gains of around a percent on a day when 20 companies listed on benchmark there are scheduled to announce their quarterly earnings.
Jakarta Composite advanced 13.25 points or 0.34% to 3,922.75, Nikkei 225 surged 80.55 points or 0.96% to 8,466.14, Straits Times climbed 21.06 points or 0.77% to 2,764.72, Seoul Composite added 7.61 points or 0.41% to 1,872.18 and Taiwan Weighted gained 8.98 points or 0.12% to 7,195.56.
On the flipside, Shanghai Composite plummeted 40.20 points or 1.77% to 2,234.81 and Hang Seng eased 5.92 points or 0.03% to 19,089.46.
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